The present invention is concerned with a transfer apparatus for transferring items or parts to be tested back and forth from a conveyor belt or other transport mechanism to a test rig located alongside the belt.
In manufacturing parts such as electronic chips or circuit boards, the parts must be tested before packaging to ensure that they are not faulty. Typically, this is done by repeatedly picking up a part from a conveyor belt, moving it to the test rig for testing, and then returning it to the conveyor belt before indexing the belt to a new position so that a subsequent part can be tested. In known machines, the mechanism for picking up parts, testing them, and returning them to the belt is arranged to pick up a part, move it vertically upwards, turn it through an angle of 90.degree. in the same plane, move it forward to the test rig, and then reverse the movement to return the tested part to the belt. This involves a very large and heavy moving mass, since the drive mechanism is part of the moving head and is quite complex.